Todd Pratt – the self-proclaimed Mike Piazza of Triple-A, and now the Bucky Dent of the Mets’ first Division Series – may not have had his last moment of glory.

There are no guarantees that Mike Piazza’ssore left thumb will be improved enough to play tomorrow night, or that it won’t suffer a setback.

If that happens, Pratt will strap on the catcher’s gear again and take his bat back out to the batter’s box and try to build on his reputation as a super sub.

Pratt’s journey to Saturday’s 10th inning – when he homered to beat the D’backs – is a remarkable.

Not only was he the Mike Piazza of Triple-A, the 32-year-old Pratt also was the Mike Piazza of pizza ovens.

Taught baseball and football by his mother, Pratt once was considered a top prospect in the Red Sox system. But he bounced around the minor leagues for seven full seasons before being drafted by the Phillies in the Rule V draft. Then he was up and down with the Phillies for three more seasons, and then over to the Cubs.

By 1996 he was out of baseball completely, living in Florida and earning his living making pizzas.

He eventually found baseball work at the baseball school of another one-game home run hero. Pratt worked at Dent’s school in Daytona and finally got another shot, this time with the Mets’ Triple-A club in 1997.

He was up and down that year, coming up when Todd Hundley was suffering from his elbow injury. When Hundley had the surgery in Sept. 1997, Pratt had a good chance to make the team out of spring training.

But in the last week of camp he was left off the roster in favor of Alberto Castillo and Tim Spehr. A highly emotional player, Pratt was devastated by the demotion and holed up in his St. Lucie apartment for three days. Only Norfolk manager Rick Dempsey’s personal intervention was able to drag Pratt out and back behind the plate.

“Last year was a very testing year for me,” Pratt said. “Every time I got sent down I didn’t deserve it. … It was very heartbreaking. “Last year was very difficult for me. … yesterday [Saturday] was the exclamation on that.”

“Yesterday,” refers to a game, a series and a home run.

With one out in the 10th, Pratt homered just over the center field fence, just past the reach glove of Gold Glove center fielder Steve Finley to lift the Mets, 4-3, and give them a 3-1 series win.

Pratt may never play again this year. But even if he doesn’t, he has done his share and earned his place in New York baseball history – earned a slice in the Big Apple pie, not the pizza pie.